Page:Boy scouts in the White Mountains; the story of a long hike (IA boyscoutsinwhite00eato).pdf/271

 too, the clouds had reached them, and they made the last few hundred yards enveloped in the giant's bed-*clothes.

"Bet he was damp in 'em, too," said Peanut.

The coach house and barn burst upon them suddenly, out of the fog.

The boys rushed at once up the steps to the Tip Top House, secured their copies of Above the Clouds, and read Rob's account of the storm, which the editor had cut down till it was only half what Rob had written, much to everybody's indignation. While they were reading the paper, buying sweet chocolate and sending post-cards home, the clouds thinned out on the summit, and when, at eight o'clock, they again stepped out-of-doors, there seemed to be every prospect of a splendid day, with a gentle northerly wind to cool the air.

"Now, our objective point is the Madison Hut, over there to the northeast at the base of the summit cone of Madison," said Mr. Rogers. "We'll spend the night in the hut, and go down the next day to Randolph, through King's Ravine, and catch a train home. There are two ways of getting there. One is to go over the Gulf Side Trail, along the summit ridge of the north peaks, the other, and much the harder way, is to descend into the Great Gulf and climb up again, either by the Six Husbands' Trail,